Where Will I Live?

During your time at Itchen Sixth Form College you will be living with a local homestay host. You will become part of their family and will experience life in a UK household, as well as have the chance to practice your language skills on a daily basis.

Home Stay Hosts

Homestay Testimonial: Debbie

"I’ve been a homestay host for six years now, ever since my daughter started at Itchen and wanted to have the experience of having an international student living with us and sharing her college experience.

I’ve had about fifteen students from all over the world since then. They’ve come from Germany, Latvia, China, Brazil, Venezuela and I’m in touch with all of them and their families. I meet up regularly with students who have gone on to study at university and I’m there for them even after they’ve moved on. They call me their “English mum”. I think their parents feel reassured that if there is ever a problem, I’ll be there for them.

I believe in treating every student as one of the family because I would want my own children to be treated the same way if they were thousands of miles away.

We do lots of things together. We bake cakes, and I invite the students out with us when we go out as a family. I’ve even taken them on holiday with us when we’ve gone to Cornwall.

Quite a few of the students’ natural parents have come and stayed with us when they’ve visited the UK. They’ve become friends and we keep in touch via Skype. We’ve been invited to stay with lots of the families of our former students and in February this year, we stayed with Cheyenne’s family in Rio de Janeiro for two weeks during Carnival."

You can see photos on the right of this page of Debbie visiting Cheyenne's family in Rio de Janeiro.

100% of our students were immediately happy with their host family according to 2016 feedback data

The host family were super nice, really interested in us. They took care of us like if we are part of their family so we felt really welcome and safe.
- Marion

See us in action

My host family will forever be remembered. They all treat me as a part of the family and I always spend time with them in the evening. We're always chatting about our lives, food and different cultures.
- Maria, Brazil